Movie Poster Expert Explains Color Schemes | Vanity Fair

James Verdesoto, the movie poster artist behind iconic posters such as Pulp Fiction, Ocean's Eleven, Girl, Interrupted, and Training Day, explains how color schemes are used in movie posters.



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[JEAN]

“Yellow is a cheap way to catch the eye”
Vanity: *uses yellow posters for thumbnail*

[Chocolatepain]

Very interesting video! I like the guys straightforward and pleasant discussion style.

[maui]

3:10 wtf he outlined that photo in one stroke perfectly

[boink]

I wish he would have done a comparison on horror movie posters as well.

[hereitszara]

I’ve never noticed that colours are used to represent the genre

[sarahcollins]

The most impressive thing about this video is how quickly and precisely he outlined Russell Crowe’s profile.

[HandsomeDevil]

I'd like to know what he thinks about the headless woman phenomenon in movie posters

[dan]

that beat kept cutting on an up beat and it threw me off the whole video. i needed it to cut out on a kick or a drum break or something

[jjandorliadul]

I wish he would critique them too, but I guess that would be another video. That would be awesome.

[hd-xclz]

More James Verdesoto videos please.
Would love to see a series with each video examining posters of a decade.

[sean]

Design is only interesting when someone who understands it explains it.

[hardlybreathe]

This is the most comprehensive one I watched about movie posters

[ricg]

ah thats why the last 30 years the posters all looked the same

[e-c-dia]

"yellow is used as a cheap way to catch the eyes" XD

[jrandall]

Would love to see a vid on book jacket design 😀

[pprincss]

In my last year of high school studying Visual Communication Design (Australian school) and this was super helpful and straight to the point in describing movie posters and why designers use specific elements and principles to capture an audience. Thank you Vanity Fair!!

[keyman]

Fascinating. I was sad when it was over. More, more, more!

[ruthantunez]

Wish there was more of this type of content out there. I absolutely love when an expert discusses his or hers field of expertise.

[GrammarGal]

It's interesting how, for the most part, movie poster design trends don't really date. When you look at the modern ones next to the older ones they're not that disparate.

[asterismos]

I plan on being a book designer, so there's lots of overlap with the shorthands for genres used in colour and text on both covers and posters, which is quite fun. Really interesting too to see the huge differences between the two--book covers (with the exception of children's or middle grade fiction) tend to avoid having the faces of characters on them (so the reader can picture the character however they want to) while movies push the faces of the characters to the centre (especially for big stars to pull in viewers). It's very fun to see someone other than myself explaining the ways designs tell you the genre and feel of a story through codes like colour that you aren't consciously aware of.